Miami is the new Monaco
£875 for a weekend race ticket and £2,550 a person for dinner at a pop-up restaurant. Truly…
WHAT could possibly out-Monaco the old principality with its glistening harbour of the Gucci and the gaudy?
Well, judging by the prices attached to next Sunday’s inaugural Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix, this Floridian spot will get mighty close. Any Middle Englanders taking the nine-hour flight from London should speak to their mortgage adviser first.
A weekend ticket will set you back £875. A day pass begins at close to £480. Or treat yourself to a hospitality package from £3,800, if still available.
But such is the wider carnival atmosphere planned that much of the entertainment can be found away from the track centred on the Hard Rock Stadium, with its palm-tree-lined boulevards and 12-cabin gondola cable-car system in Miami Gardens, north of downtown.
Over at Miami Beach, pop-up restaurant Carbone is charging £2,550 per person for dinner or just under £24,000 for a table. The signature dish at this supper club on the sand is a ‘palate-friendly’ spicy rigatoni vodka — described as ‘swoonsome’, if you will.
And even if you are not too concerned with the intricacies of the slight elevation change between turns 13 and 16 of the largely flat 19-corner, 3.3-mile track, you can still pamper yourself with the St Regis Bal Harbour’s Diamond Package for £87,500.
But do not fret, De Beers are on hand for a consultation. You will enjoy a dinner with wine-pairing, use of an ocean-front villa and a private round-trip flight to Miami with EvoJets.
Does that beat Monaco’s millions? Not quite. During race weekends there, the Churchill Suite at Hotel de Paris on Casino Square is £100,000 a night. In all, it is estimated the Miami area will see a 35,000-spike in hotel bookings this week. Some visitors who left it late have been forced slightly further afield to Fort Lauderdale, a 30-mile drive away.
Despite the high costs, organisers anticipate a crowd of 80,000. Among the high-rollers expected on a pre-race grid that will be deliberately packed are LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Dan Marino, David Beckham, James Corden, the Williams sisters, Pharrell Williams and Wyclef Jean.
For F1, owned by American conglomerate Liberty Media, pitching up in Miami is a feather they are happy to wear in their caps. On taking over from Bernie Ecclestone in 2017, they promised to establish a proper hold in the US.
This is F1’s 11th venue across the Pond, where the series has been seen as a peculiar distraction from the European continent, which not every American knows a whole heap about. Since then, partly through the evangelising impact of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, F1’s gospel has spread. Lewis Hamilton is a name of international fame. He also lives much of the year on the West Coast.
One of his assignments is a promotional golf event alongside Tom Brady, NFL’s GOAT, who, aged 44, might act as inspiration to F1’s most-garlanded champion.
Austin, Texas, already hosts a very successful race, held in October, while Las Vegas comes on to the calendar next year. All three US bases will remain on the calendar for the foreseeable.
One insider described the desired Miami vibe as ‘Austin on steroids, crazy but classily done’. Roll up, roll up, it should be fun. Or simply save your money and treat yourself to a Ferrari instead.